Effect of maternal alcohol consumption on the lipid composition of CNS in the offspring.

Maternal alcohol consumption at a level that does not affect calorie intake increases cholesterol concentration and content as well as incorporation of labeled glucose into cholesterol in the brain and spinal cord of newborn rat pups. Continued consumption of alcohol during lactation also affects the galactolipid concentration in the brain and spinal cord of pups at 21 days of age, and this increase seems mainly to be due to an increase in content of myelin lipids. Analysis of myelin shows that the concentration of phospholipids also increases in this fraction. The increase in incorporation of labeled glucose into these membrane lipids suggests an increase in the synthesis of these lipids, which prevents fluidization of the membrane by alcohol. That in the brainstem the increase in levels of cholesterol and galactolipids is higher than in other regions and that there is also an increase in content of sphingomyelin, phosphatidylcholine, and phosphatidylethanolamine suggest that the brainstem needs better protection against fluidization.